


Stay With Me

by QuickSilverFox3



Series: Whumptober 2019 [17]
Category: Dragon Age (Video Games), Dragon Age - All Media Types, Dragon Age II, Dragon Age: Inquisition
Genre: 3+1, Alcohol, Angst and Feels, Canonical Character Death, Cuddling & Snuggling, Gen, Hurt No Comfort, M/M, Platonic Male/Male Relationships, Platonic Relationships, Platonic Soulmates, Whump, Whumptober 2019
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-18
Updated: 2019-10-18
Packaged: 2020-12-23 17:22:39
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 708
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21085040
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/QuickSilverFox3/pseuds/QuickSilverFox3
Summary: Varric and Hawke promised that they would stay together. But promises can be broken...





	Stay With Me

**Author's Note:**

> [ My Tumblr!](https://inkformyblood.tumblr.com) Requests are always welcome!
> 
> Remembering the voice line from Varric if you leave Hawke in the Fade nearly kills me so I had to ^^  
Whumptober 2019 #17 "Stay With Me"

It became something of joke between them. It wasn't quite the right word to describe it, the action too drenched in potential sadness to truly encourage humour.

//

"Hey!"

Hawke turned back to look at the dwarf, his mabari settling down next to him with a quiet whuff.

"Just stay with me," Varric said, swagger in his tone, a spark of mischief in his eye, "I'll keep you right."

"If you manage that I think my mother will give you a medal," Hawke replied, grin lighting up his face, revealing the young man he never got to be, responsibilities placed on his shoulders as soon as he was able to bare them.

"I do like medals," Varric said, pulling Bianca further up his shoulder, the heft of the crossbow a greater comfort than he could say as he slipped down from his perch and strode after Hawke.

Hawke waited before setting off once again, matching his pace to Varric's easily, surreptitiously. Not many humans would do that. Varric knew Hawke was going to make things very interesting around here, and he did love a good story.

//

"What's the matter Hawke?"

Hawke dramatically flopped onto a nearby patch of grass, eyes closed and one hand pressed to his forehead in a pose suspiciously similar to the covers of the bodice rippers Varric wrote and Isabel read aloud to Merril under the guise of education, but secretly to watch her face flush.

"What will you do when I'm old and grey Varric?" Hawke complained, pouting at the dwarf as he propped his feet up on a rock, wriggling to stop the sword on his back digging into him.

"Probably will be sitting next to you, book in my hand and boring everyone around us with the same old stories," Varric replied, sitting down next to Hawke with a grunt, resting against the other man's bulk, Hawke's hand reflexively coming round to hug him closer.

"Promise you'll stay with me?" Hawke murmured so quietly Varric doubted he had heard the man.

The dwarf leaned back to stare up into Hawke's face. His eyes were closed, faint specks of pollen clinging to his hair and beard.

"Always," Varric promised, squeezing Hawke's hand, utterly overwhelmed with the love he felt for this man. It was never romantic, something both he and Hawke had expressed to the other, but it was still love.

//

"Love you Varric."

"Love you too Hawke."

How had his life wound up like this?

Varric knew things were different in human towns from the dwarven settlements they stayed at when he was younger. He embraced human culture more without the dragging weight of dwarven expectations nipping at his heels. But even then, he never could have imagined this. Hawke was a warm weight a top him, a living blanket curled around Varric so that not a single inch of him, bare his face, was exposed. Hawke was drunk, very drunk, judging by the droop to his eyelids and the smell of honey on his breath, but he would lean on Varric regardless, hug the dwarf, rub his cheek against his like an overgrown cat.

"You gonna stay with me Hawke?" Varric asked, running one hand as far down Hawke's back he could reach, repeating the motion over and over again as his words slowly made their way through Hawke's drink addled mind.

"Yeah..." Hawke groaned, breath warm against Varric's neck, hanging onto him even tighter, "Always will."

//

Varric stared at the empty grave, still unwilling to believe it. Hawke had been through so much, the death of his brother, his mother, his sister. And yet he had still been able to grin and laugh with Varric, to flop onto the vaguely protesting dwarf and hug him until he could believe in a better world again. But now?

"You said you'd stay with me," Varric told the grave. Hawke wasn't there, he knew that, but all he had was a ring made for delicate human fingers on a chain around his neck, and this grave.

Varric stayed by the grave site until the last mourners had gone and night fell like a cloak around him. Then and only then did he allow himself to grieve for the other half of his soul.


End file.
